Woodall describes drink, drugs battle

Rex Features

Trinny Woodall has admitted that she used to be addicted to alcohol and illegal drugs.

Speaking to The Independent On Sunday, the television presenter, who has been sober for 19 years, explained that she was left "emotionally bankrupt".

"My grandfather was an alcoholic, my uncle was an alcoholic, so I can definitely see the physical addiction through the generations," she said.

"It's probably a mixture of growing up and taking things from my upbringing that made me feel insecure and the kind of person I already was when I was born."

Woodall, who confessed that she "did everything" except injecting drugs, was thrown out of rehab at the age of 21 but could not commit to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous sessions.

She explained: "Someone in the meeting came up to me and said, 'You haven't had enough. You need to go out and have a real rock bottom'. So then I used for another five years."

However, at the age of 26 she decided to make a pact to get clean with three friends, who all later died.

"It wasn't my worst drinking and using but emotionally I was bankrupt," she said. "I felt I had nothing. All my ambition and drive had gone. All my connection with people had gone."

She continued: "There were times when rehab and the halfway house were very, very tough but I never felt like I wanted to leave.

"I kind of felt it was my last chance, that I'd done all the drinking and using that I ever wanted to do."